Lots of bloatware. Heated up quickly after gaming and intensive tasks in testing. Mediocre battery life.

Bottom Line

The LG G4 for AT&T has a gorgeous display, an excellent camera, and features you won't find in most flagship phones, but it's laden with bloatware and tends to run hot.

The LG G4 is a compelling smartphone for buyers who aren't satisfied with the lack of expandable storage and sealed battery in the Editors' Choice-winning Samsung Galaxy S6. In addition to a microSD slot and a replaceable battery, the G4 also offers a brilliant display and an excellent camera, though it doesn't have the same premium feel as the Galaxy S6 or the HTC One M9. It also suffered from overheating in our tests. At $629.99 on AT&T, the G4 is a solid Android flagship, but it certainly isn't perfect.

We've already reviewed the LG G4 on Verizon, with a full breakdown of the phone's design, features, hardware, and performance. This review will focus on call quality, network performance, battery life, and software on the AT&T model. Since we noted overheating for the Verizon model, we also tested thermal management under heavy loads here as well.

Networking and Battery LifeThe AT&T LG G4 supports GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz), HSPA+ (850/1900/2100MHz), and LTE (1/2/3/4/5/7/16) bands. Network connectivity was strong in most parts of midtown Manhattan. At the high end, I measured a download/upload speed of 24.18 Mbps/10.88 Mbps, which fell to 3.90 Mbps/0.73 Mbps at the lowest. Indoors, with the G4 connected to the PC Labs 5GHz FiOS test router, I measured an impressive 75.76 Mbps/95.08 Mbps.

Editors' Note: The slideshow below shows the Verizon LG G4, which is physically identical to the AT&T model.

Call quality on the G4 was generally good, although there were moments of crackling or pops in testing. For most calls, voices retained their natural tone without any undercurrent of static. Noise cancellation was effective—background sounds were dampened to the point that I could barely detect traffic and construction noises in a test call. The speakers are loud enough to hear outside, but since they face the back of the phone, it's easy to accidentally cover them with your hand. It's worth noting that unlike the G4 models on Sprint and T-Mobile, the AT&T version does not support Wi-Fi calling.

Battery life on the AT&T G4 is mediocre. I continuously streamed a YouTube video over LTE at maximum screen brightness and the phone clocked 4 hours, 57 minutes of run time. That's a little better than the Verizon model, which got 4 hours, 27 minutes, and the Sprint model, which got 4 hours, 28 minutes. But it's only an average result compared with the Galaxy S6, which clocked 6 hours, 33 minutes on the same test. At least the battery is removable, so you can always carry a spare.

Processor, Performance, and OverheatingOur review of the Verizon LG G4 noted that the device suffered from overheating following processor-intensive tasks like gaming, especially near the earpiece. The AT&T G4 doesn't overheat per se, but it does tend to run hotter than you might be comfortable with. The phone doesn't have the notorious Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, but it does use a Snapdragon 808, which seems like it may suffer from some of the same problems.

In a cold state, without any games or other major tasks running, the AT&T G4 measured 72 degrees Fahrenheit and AnTuTu benchmarks registered a score of 50,104. After 10 minutes of playing Asphalt 8 at maximum screen brightness, the earpiece temperature climbed to 91 degrees. After 15 minutes, it continued to rise to 93.5 degrees, and after 25 minutes it reached 99 degrees. Half an hour of gaming, which is an average subway commute time in New York City, resulted in a high of 104 degrees—making the phone hot enough that it was uncomfortable to handle.

Other intensive games like RipTide GP, Injustice: Gods Among Us, and Mortal Kombat X all resulted in fast temperature increases. It took 15 minutes for the earpiece to hit 101 degrees. Mortal Kombat X didn't make it past the intro video; I wasn't able to actually play the game at all.

At first I suspected that there is a problem with the thermal management system. But AnTuTu results following the gaming session showed a benchmark score of 46,970, indicating that the processor is being throttled, just not enough to dial down the heat.

As mentioned, the heat is concentrated in the area around the earpiece. The back panel didn't heat up nearly as much, ranging between 81 and 85 degrees, even when the earpiece was at its hottest. The camera sensor became a bit warm, with temperatures ranging from 90 to 95 degrees. In comparison, the similarly sized Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ never broke 87 degrees near the earpiece, even after playing the same game titles for the same amount of time. The S6 edge+ is also able to play Mortal Kombat X without issue.

Software and ConclusionsThe AT&T G4 runs Android 5.1 Lollipop and is rife with bloatware. Out of 32GB of storage, the device has 21.53GB free. I counted 22 preloaded AT&T apps, roughly half of which can be uninstalled. Non-removable apps include ones like LG SmartWorld, Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, and Lookout. These apps are at least useful compared with others like AT&T Locker, AT&T Mobile TV, Wild Tangent Games, and AT&T Drive Mode, which duplicate features and functionality that can be found in apps in Google Play. On the plus side, the G4 has a microSD card slot that accepts cards up to 200GB, so all that bloatware shouldn't be too big of an issue.

There's plenty to like about the LG G4, including its gorgeous display, great camera, removable battery, and microSD card slot. Unfortunately, this is the second unit we've tested that runs hot near the earpiece. The battery life isn't stellar, either. Taking these issues into account, the Samsung Galaxy S6 remains our Editors' Choice for Android smartphones on AT&T.

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About the Author

Ajay Kumar is PCMag's Analyst obsessed with all things mobile. Ajay reviews phones, tablets, accessories, and just about any other gadget that can be carried around with you. In his spare time he games on the rig he built himself, collects Nintendo amiibos, and tries his hand at publishing a novel. Follow Ajay on Twitter @Ajay_H_Kumar.

LG G4 (AT&T)

LG G4 (AT&T)

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